Extending Our Cup of Cold Water

The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
Sermon for June 28, 2026

My friends, I speak to you today in the name of one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.

Good morning, Church of the Epiphany. Happy Pride weekend, I know I saw several of you out at Stanley Johnston Park yesterday. South Haven Pride continues through today at 2 pm; if you weren’t able to go yesterday, it’s worth a visit after brunch. I had several people stop me and say that it was good and important to see the church represented there, and it was. Thank you for showing up for that community and event again this year.

If you have been with us here in service the last few weeks, especially last week, you likely noticed something about our lectionary readings this morning. We have had some challenging, “meaty” scripture texts in June, since Pentecost Sunday, including a difficult text last week about peace and swords. This week, we have another challenging story in the Old Testament, this time with Abraham being called to sacrifice his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves. There is a lot to preach on, there in Genesis, a lot of good connections between sacrifice and Jesus, about truly listening to God, about how “The Lord will provide.” So too is there a lot to say from Paul’s famous words to the church in Rome: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul can be difficult to navigate in the twenty-first century; being slaves to righteousness is… not the language we’d use today. But I do love his writings dearly when placed in proper context. We have a lot to learn from St. Paul. “You are not under law but under grace” is a reminder our world, and the church especially, deeply needs.

But beyond that, I’m going to ignore those two good and preachable texts this morning and head instead for the three short verses in Matthew. Three verses! The shortest gospel reading in all three years of lectionary texts, Matthew 10:40-42 comes at the end of Jesus’s instruction to his twelve disciples. It comes directly after our wonderful Father’s Day text of setting sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers. “Those who find their life will lose it, those who lose their life for my sake will find it,” and then this morning’s three short verses of Jesus’s words in the gospel according to Matthew.

Can anyone tell me what these three verses are about this morning? Just one word?

Welcome. Mentioned six times in these three verses, “welcome” is definitely our theme this morning. Welcoming the disciples is welcoming Jesus; welcoming Jesus is welcoming God. Welcoming a prophet or a righteous person earns you the reward of those doing the good work, because it too is the good work. Welcoming the little ones, his term of endearment for his disciples here, even giving them a cup of cold water, such a specific act of hospitality, this earns you equal rewards. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Now, I must admit, this is a “gimmie” of a sermon here at Epiphany. But sometimes you need to just take the gimmie. I read commentaries this week, I listened to the podcasts. I looked at these lectionary texts together and saw the corollaries between God providing for Abraham and the earliest of Jesus’s followers providing for the disciples, for those leaving to heal the sick, cast out demons, spread the good news. But I kept coming back to the word “welcome.” This is the theme of our parish: Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of life and faith, you are welcome here. No exceptions. This is the motivating factor behind so many of us coming back Sunday after Sunday. If our particular Episcopal church had to choose a “life verse,” a chapter and verse we could tattoo on our biceps or wrists, it might be this one, Matthew 10:40. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” We might add some tattoo art of a hand extending a cup of water to another empty hand. Schedule your tattoos today: I think Siren’s Rose over on Eagle St. takes appointments.

But “welcome” is our thing; I hope I’m not speaking too soon for anyone, so I’m opening up this door too… if you have not been welcomed here at Epiphany, if you feel like you’re still on the outside looking in, come tell me. Or tell an usher. Or tell the person who is aggressively shaking your hand at the Peace. We pride ourselves on our welcome here, but that does not mean we cannot improve on it. There is always room to improve.

We experience and exhibit welcome here in countless ways, so please do not get offended if your particular way is not listed here, I just needed a few good examples and to list them all would keep us here for far too long. We welcome through our Searching Spirits group, where spiritual seekers come together to read and share their thoughts and impressions, not to indoctrinate but to share in the search together. We welcome through our yoga classes, which are not entirely “ours,” but our willingness to host yoga teachers for free in our Chapel, without contract or fee, letting them practice their healing work for our greater community in our space, that is a welcoming act. We welcome through Pride, which might be the easiest to understand given yesterday’s event. Through our presence and service in that part of our community, and in our new signage going up with rainbow flags and shields, we let people – who are too often rejected by the church – we let them know they are truly loved and welcomed and affirmed here. Everything we do here as the Church of the Epiphany is consistently and constantly inviting others to be a part of it, to come alongside, to lend their voice and their expertise and their story to a greater story than a story they can live all on their own, to a story of a community of fellow seekers, looking and building toward the abundant love and welcome of the kingdom of our God.

The Peace and our Community Brunch are our most obvious forms of welcome here this morning and every Sunday. Some of us may have lost just how rare and important these two liturgical acts here are, because they seem to just flow out of our gathering together. But they are both a real and central ministry. At the Peace, here in a few minutes, we welcome each other, we shake hands and smile and hug and catch up with each other, just briefly though! I ruin the fun with the ringing of the bell, otherwise we’d be here all day. In that act, especially for our newcomers and visitors, we let everyone know they are seen, that they are not alone, which is one of the main reasons people come to church. One of my favorite weekly exchanges at our church in North Carolina was with one of our ushers. “Good to see you, Kirby,” I’d say every week. “It’s good to be seen,” he’d say back. See each other at the Peace. And see each other at Brunch. Brunch for us is not just a social time, not just a nice free meal each Sunday. Brunch is our core ministry. Brunch is one of the very first blocks we have laid over the last decade on top of the foundation that is Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. Brunch is a time for service, where we cook food for others, wash dishes for others, clean tables for others. It is a time for connection, where we build real relationships with each other beyond the quick hello and goodbye you might find in other churches on Sunday mornings. And mostly, friends, it is a time for welcome. It is a time to let everyone know they are loved, to meet new people, to extend a metaphorical cup of cold water to people who may be afraid to admit that they desperately need one. We all need a cup of cold water given to us from time to time. Welcome each other, and in doing so, remember that you are welcoming Christ himself. 

Friends, this may have felt like an obvious, simple, gimmie sermon this morning, a charge you did not need to hear. But when the lectionary lines up with who you say that you are and who you hope to be, the church does need to hear this reminder that yes, we do this, we welcome everyone, because Christ urges us to do so.

This is what it is to be Christian, to be a Christ follower, this is especially what it is to the Church of the Epiphany this morning: we love and welcome all and we too are welcomed in return, no matter our history, our struggles, our sins, our bank statements, our level of education, no matter our family or faith background, our race, our gender, our sexual orientation, or anything else that can and may be used to divide us, the children of God, from one another.

We are all welcome in the kingdom of God, and we must remember to extend that welcome to all. As Bishop Gene Robinson once wrote, “God is always moving us to include more people in the kingdom.” May we never forget that this is the good work we are invited to do, to love and serve and welcome, as Christ loves, serves, and welcomes us.

Amen.